Shapton K0710 Melon 8000 Blade Finishing

Shapton are great. 8000 provides an extremely high polish and is slow wearing, (Unless Angle Jig is used). Angle jigs on water stones of any kind will dish the stones out quicker than anything else.. I’ve gotten to the point where I form my bevel on diamond stones with a jig, then freehand on the Shapton stones. It’s not that difficult in the more you do it the quicker you become proficient at it.. I can’t think of anything negative to say about Shapton Kuromaku.

Great stone! Great feedback. Great value for money.

Just what I needed to hone a razor.

With all the "new" ways to sharpen your knives, chisles, straight razor etc. It can be overwhelming just trying to figure out what stone to purchase and what coarseness/ finesse, oil/ water, soak/splash n go, ceramic/ diamond/ glass, natural/ man made etc etc etc. And if you're new to sharpening or getting back into it, please go do some research. There's allot out there. I have bought "budget" stones and now "middle of the road" stones. You may be asking yourself as i was, "why?" why spend that extra $ when you can get the same grit stone from whoever for a quarter of the price. Well from my experience cheap stones (under 20$) you get what you pay for. most cheap stones wear down extremely fast, are rarely the grit that is advertised, takes for ever to "cut" and usually are smaller in width and or thickness. You can run the whetstone gambit all you want. But in the end you'll wind up here or maybe at choosera or king. But you will wind up here. So save yourself the extra $ now. Don't be like me and waste money on unprofessional cheap gimmicks. This product comes with a self-contained case. this is a splash and go stone. arrived undamaged and on time. My only complaint/ suggestion is possibly instructions in multiple languages.. especially if new to sharpening!! and that's why this isn't a 5 star

I own several 8000 grit whetstones by other manufacturers. Because I have other grits in the Shapton Kuromaku lineup (220, 320, 1500, 2000, 5000) and they all perform well, I decided to get this 8000 stone, as well.The stone arrived promptly. It is very hard, and very smooth. Like other stones in the lineup, this 8000 grit is splash and go, meaning that it does not require soaking before use.Although it was very flat out of the box, I still lapped it with my Atoma diamond lapping plate because the surface of this stone had a very light oily, hydrophobic feel to it, probably due to the manufacturing process. A minute of lapping removed that coating. This coating is not a defect, by the way. I always lap a brand new stone as a matter of course, before first use.A small amount of the swarf that forms on the stone during honing tends to coat the surface, but most of it washes away simply by rubbing with my fingers. In any case, I briefly clean the top of this stone between knives anyway, using a Nagura stone.An 8000 grit stone is a great finishing stone for harder steels, typical of Japanese knives (HRC 60 or higher). You can use it as a final step for German knives (Wusthof, Henkel), but you probably will not see much improvement over a 3000 grit stone.

If you want to finish the job you started, you can't not go to #8000.

Very nice ceramic stone for sharpening

I use this stone (8000 grit) for my straight razor. Good for the rare maintenace you'd do outside of stropping as long as you have the angle just right.If you are new to using whetstones, this one is a lower effort stone as you don't need to soak, but since it's a "finishing" or "polishing" stone grit, you may be less destructive to your blades.